Bombed at anchor, forgotten for decades, and still loaded with the war it was carrying.
The Thistlegorm was a British merchant ship carrying supplies to the Eighth Army in North Africa. In October 1941 she was anchored in the Gulf of Suez, waiting for the canal to clear, when two German bombers found her. The ammunition in hold four detonated and she went down in minutes.
She was located by Cousteau in the early 1950s, filmed, and then effectively lost again until recreational divers rediscovered her in the 1990s. That gap is why she is so intact.
What is inside is the reason she is regarded as one of the great wreck dives anywhere: BSA and Norton motorcycles still racked in rows, Bedford trucks, Bren gun carriers, aircraft parts, rubber boots, and rifles stacked in crates. Two locomotives blown clear of the deck sit on the seabed either side.
She lies at 17 to 30 metres, which is within advanced recreational range, but currents can be strong and the interior is genuine overhead environment.
She lies at 17 to 30 metres, which is within advanced recreational range, but currents can be strong and the interior is genuine overhead environment. Go with an operator who briefs properly and stays with you — this is a war grave as well as a dive site, and it is treated as one.
